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Two hours into a high quality fourth-round tussle at the US Open on Monday night, the second set of Jannik Sinner’s duel with Tommy Paul was yet to be decided. After the crushing blow of conceding an extremely tight first set, Paul admirably fought back to force a second tiebreak with an array of bold shot-making and confident forays to the net. The No 14 seed took a narrow 5-4 lead to be two points away from levelling the match at one set all.
The critical points are where the best players in the world so often separate themselves from the rest, and on Arthur Ashe Stadium they marked the difference between the two. After Paul missed two consecutive backhand second serve returns from 5-4 in the tiebreak, Sinner pounced on the first set point without hesitation, lasering a brilliant forehand return that would lead to him establishing a two-set lead.